I'm cheap
Yet another paper round victim. I think my parents wanted to teach me the value of money (not that we had a lot of it though). I did a paper round with my brother for a few years. We got $5.52 between us for just under 300 papers (this was over 15 yrs ago, but I still remember the amount). It took us 2hrs (1hr in the morning and 1hr in the afternoon), so that is $1.38 per hour (in Aussie dollars, so 58p per hr at today's exchange rate). Why so long, you ask? Well, first we'll have to ride up a massive hill on our bikes, then up a driveway, paper in box, down driveway, up the next one etc. I was justifiably upset when I found out city people were paid the same rate for delivering to a block of flats.

Still, I got a good tan and I'm still pretty fit. Plus this was a part of the country where if it rained I'd just wear lighter clothes - rain doesn't matter so much when it's not cold (except for having less effective brakes on the bike, which can be a problem with an extra 20-40 kilos on the back). Some days we'd get inserts which would slow us down a bit, but put the pay rate up - once I got around $10 for a few hours - I felt rich.

Later in life, I came home one weekend and my dad asked me to mow the lawn (1/2 acre block so it would take an hour or two) and offered me the old amount of $2. I was now working, so said I'd do it for free. He looked a bit crestfallen that he couldn't "help me out" like this - I felt glad I hadn't told him were to stick his totally inadequate offer.
(Skippyfillet, Sat 18 Feb 2006, 11:58, Reply)